Conventionally, in an organic electroluminescence (hereinafter referred to as organic EL) device including an organic layer interposed between an anode and a cathode, there are cases where an undesirable short circuit occurs due to attachment or mixture of a conductive foreign substance or patterning defects during the manufacturing process, and the organic EL device becomes defective.
In this case, there is a method of repairing a defect caused by the short circuit, by increasing resistance by irradiating a target region defined by the shorted area or the periphery thereof with a laser (see, for example, Patent Literature 1 to 3).
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique of measuring the depth of an electrode forming film that is removed by laser irradiation, midway through the laser irradiation process, recognizing the progress of correction at that time from the relationship between the measured depth and a previously known thickness of the electrode forming film before the correction, and adjusting the laser irradiation after the measurement.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a method of measuring the size of a foreign substance which is located between a cathode and an anode and contributes to the short circuiting of the cathode and the anode, setting the wavelength and number of irradiations of a laser with which the foreign substance is to be irradiated, based on the size of the foreign substance, and irradiating the foreign substance with the set laser, to thereby remove at least part of the foreign substance.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a method of detecting a potential defective area of an organic EL device by way of fluorescent testing using irradiation with a first ultraviolet laser, and irradiating the detected defective area with a second ultraviolet laser for repairing to thereby remove the defective area.